How Does Ishmael Beah Learn About The Existence Of The Sierra Leone Civil War

Ishmael Beah Humanizes Sierra Leone At NYU Open Forum

By Taylor Nemetz

"In Sierra Leone, we don't analyze emotions much, at least not directly. But we tell stories. A expert storyteller tin look at an audience of people and immediately be able to discern exactly what it is that they need. A specific medicine — a specific story — to inform, to heal, to motivate. We learn through the grand lens of a shared human being experience."

On Midweek night at an event hosted past NYU's Global Liberal Studies programme, Ishmael Beah did merely that. He became our storyteller. He looked at the audience, filled with people of all dissimilar ages, interests, ethnicities, and occupations, and he told his story fearlessly, taking a seemingly unfathomable experience and allowing it to not only become accessible to all, but to go intimately relatable to all. As the storyteller, Ishmael Beah believed that it was his duty to impart his own experiential knowledge to the world, recognizing that his painful memories could serve to teach. As he said, he felt deeply that "…[he] had to share [his] story for a purpose that was much bigger than [himself]."

Beah, writer of acknowledged novels A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Male child Soldier and Radiance of Tomorrow, was invited to speak at NYU yesterday evening in regards to his involvement in the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). In A Long Way Gone, Beah tells the unbelievable story of how, at the historic period of 12, he spent his days running without residuum beyond a land that was rendered unrecognizable in the throes of violence until he was forced into joining the disharmonize directly past the government military as a kid soldier. The novel also covers Beah's consequent rehabilitation following his removal from the war by UNICEF and his eventual reintroduction into order, assuasive readers to follow him through each stage of his volatile and riveting journey.

The onset of the state of war was especially traumatic for Beah. As a 12-year-former civilian completely separated from his family, unaware of whether or not they were fifty-fifty alive, he had no choice but to survive on his own. He was non withal able to predict all that that quest would require of him — emotionally, physically, and mentally. "I was constantly asking 'Why?'" he said, "…only the trouble was that no ane could even brainstorm to explain. We were all too decorated running."

Beah was merely a kid, and withal, sometimes he would detect that his youth could work to his reward. In reference to a passage in A Long Style Gone that details a moment in which Beah was able to escape death by performing American hip-hop music, he explained that,

…bizarre things happen in the context of war. The strangest things can save your life, things that yous would have never expected. Whether its about knowing a few hip-hop lyrics that entertain an enemy so they allow y'all to escape, or if it's a moment where y'all stop to urinate and the side by side person walking backside you gets shot where y'all would have been standing had you not stopped — it's these small, seemingly insignificant moments that would allow me to proceeds one more day at a time during the war.

This circuitous and unpredictable nature of violent disharmonize led Beah to discuss the dichotomy of war, explaining that beauty can somehow exist in the midst of all the tragedy. "Unfortunately," he says, "I don't yet recognize whatever other force as strong every bit suffering that is constructive in bringing people together. I promise that one twenty-four hours we volition learn to come together unapologetically in times of peace, but in my albeit limited human being experience, nothing can come close to the relationships and connections that are bred through pain and sorrow."

Beah went on to explicate that despite the tremendous violence he faced on a daily ground, he and his comrades were still humans with basic homo tendencies at center — tendencies that were then exercised in an entirely different context. "We had complete moments of hysterical laughter in the eye of war," he claimed, "and sure, perchance our sense of humor was a lilliputian night, only it was humor nevertheless. We had fun."

Ishmael Beah not only spoke of his personal experiences in the war itself, just as well about the fashion the state of war was presented in the media. He explained that he feels the media tends to skew the public'southward perception of African wars, in item, implying that "…Africans must just wake up ane twenty-four hours and decide to go on killing sprees because [they're] blood-thirsty and uncivilized." Beah reminds the states that it doesn't happen that way in the slightest. "The ceremonious wars that ravage African countries like the one I experienced take time to come up to fruition. They are based in political ideologies, in a desire for some sort of change," he expressed. "These wars are extremely calculated, not only in tactical endeavors but as well in attempting to achieve very specific goals. And the leaders are intellectual. They are charismatic, and disarming. I mean, how many people in this room could say that they believe they could convince even just ten others to pick up a weapon and do something? Probably none of u.s.a.. It takes time and calculated effort to motivate unrest."

Since the Sierra Leone Civil War concluded in 2002, the world has been wrought with fierce conflicts on a truly global scale. Having been exposed to such dangerous circumstances at such a young age, Beah explained that his perception of the coverage of other wars since his rehabilitation is still largely affected by his own experiences. He suggested that despite how unique his situation had been in Sierra Leone, he finds that he tin chronicle to wars of entirely different contexts and entirely different methods of execution.

"War affects all human beings," he began. "When yous hurt someone in conflict, you're not simply dehumanizing them, merely you're dehumanizing yourself. I know what war can practise to people. And when I'grand watching the news, I know what the media isn't saying. The media and the government, they both create this illusion of the "grand bravado" of war, but war doesn't deserve whatsoever accolades. If they told the truth on the news about war, nobody would sign upwards to get."

In a like vein, Beah was asked about his feelings on the current Ebola epidemic, and in particular, on its outbreak in Sierra Leone. Interestingly, his response mostly reflected his disappointment in the way the disease has been presented in the media as well.

"News outlets present Ebola as if it is something that only exists over in that location, far abroad. They say information technology's an 'African affair,' but it'southward non. They blame the Africans for sustaining the affliction, proverb that we are careless with the way we're treatment information technology," he explained. Regardless of the issues involved with the lack of infrastructure in Sierra Leone and the centralization of Ebola treatment, which only allows the disease to be perpetuated in other areas, Beah brings upwardly the all-too-human being outcome of compassion and its effects on the spread of the epidemic. In reference to the media pointing fingers at Africans, Beah asks, " …if one of their children or maybe one of their parents or one of their best friends fell sick with Ebola, would they be able to just abandon them and run away? No, it's not like shooting fish in a barrel. We stay, despite the risk of infection, for those we love," he explained, "It's not an African problem. It's a homo problem."

Despite everything, Beah still believes in his country. Upon being asked nigh the futurity of Sierra Leone, he took a moment to reflect, smiling to himself every bit he prepared his response. "Sierra Leone is a hopeful state," he explained but, "…which is crucial. Nosotros'll always accept that going for the states."

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